Due to the high cost of buying a commercial plane, it comes as no surprise that most people would rather build their own plane. Ultimately this means that you will have to decide early on whether you will build a traditional airplane or a home built jet aircraft. Most individuals are satisfied with a single engine, propeller driven airplane, while other more adventurous souls would rather build a craft that utilizes the jet engine. The following is a comparison of the two different projects to help you decide which would best suit you.
First, we will look at propeller driven planes which are built by amateurs much more often than home built jet aircraft. When building an airplane, one generally has the choice between building the plane from scratch or use a complete kit. The former option will give you a better sense of accomplishment as you will essentially be building the plane all by yourself with only some plans to guide you. However, if this is the first amateur built airplane that you will be constructing, it is usually recommended that you use a kit. These kits contain some of the more complicated pieces already assembled.
Building a home built jet aircraft on the other hand will be much more difficult, and that’s saying quite a bit. These are built much less frequently than propeller planes and there are no kits currently available. This will leave you largely up to your own devices. You should be able to get your hands on much of the parts from scrapped military and commercial jets as well as a good set of plans. All in all, it is not recommended that you undertake a project such as this one unless you are an expert mechanic and have already built a more traditional plane.
If you do choose to build a home built jet aircraft, you will be in for a long project; these planes can take 7 years to build, maybe even longer.
You have the choice of building a full size jet, or settling for a smaller sized plane built to scale. The engines may be built from scratch as well, but depending on your overall skill you would probably want to find them scrapped from other planes.
In conclusion, it is recommended that if this is your first time building a plane, you should stick to a simpler model and not attempt the homebuilt jet aircraft just yet. As building a propeller driven craft can take years and amazing dedication, this will provide all the challenge you need. Only you can be certain if you are comfortable and experienced enough to build your own jet plane, so if you think you are up for it the decision is up to you.
Pieter West travels the world on a regular basis and have written about numerous subjects. He has an extensive knowledge about, finances, DIY, parenting advice and many more subjects.
